Complete Systems

Sirius Satellite Radio NASDAQ: SIRI is a satellite radio (DARS) service in the United States that provides 65 streams (channels) of music and 55 streams of sports, news and entertainment. more...

Music streams on Sirius contain almost every type of music genre imaginable, broadcasting 24 hours a day, commercial free. With any Sirius-enabled radio, the user can see the artist and song information on display while listening to the stream. The streams are broadcast from three satellites in an elliptical geosynchronous orbit above North America. A subset of Sirius’ music channels are included as part of the DISH Network satellite television service. Sirius channels are identified by Arbitron with the label “XS” (e.g. “XS120”, “XS9”, “XS17”).

Sirius is based in New York City. Its business model is to provide pay-for-service radio, music channels being free of commercials, analogous to the business model for premium cable television. Subscription costs for Sirius range from $12.95/mo. to $499.99 for a lifetime subscription (of the receiver, not the subscriber). A $10 activation fee ($15 if activated by phone) is also required. Sirius currently lags behind competitor XM Satellite Radio in terms of subscribers with 3.3 million, well less than XM's current audience of more than 6 million subscribers (as of January 9, 2006). However, Sirius currently is leading in new satellite subscribers of 2005.

Sirius was previously known as CD Radio. The dog in the Sirius logo (Sirius is referred to as the "Dog Star") is unofficially named “Mongo,” a name garnished from the debut of Sirius Satellite Radio’s sponsorship on Casey Atwood’s and later Jimmy Spencer’s NASCAR entry, when the announcing cast voted on names. “Mongo” later became NASCAR driver Spencer’s nickname with the NASCAR Broadcasters in the following races.

Content

Howard Stern and other high profile content

A major component of Sirius’ business strategy has been to execute far-reaching and exclusive deals with big-name entertainers and personalities to create and build broadcast streams, from the ground up. Sirius has reached extensive deals with domestic diva Martha Stewart, E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt (aka Little Steven), Jimmy Buffett, and Eminem to executive produce streams on Sirius.

By far the biggest of these deals was announced on October 6, 2004 when Sirius announced that it signed a five-year, $500-million agreement with shock jock Howard Stern to move his radio show to Sirius starting on January 9, 2006. The deal, which gave Sirius exclusive rights to Stern’s radio show, also gave Stern the right to build at least two full-time programming channels. Stern stated that his move was forced by the stringent regulations of the FCC whose enforcement was intensified following the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show. Beginning with the announcement of his imminent departure, Stern began to complain of one of his employers, Infinity Broadcasting, as trying to impede the success of his departure.

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